“PISA score declines in all three subjects have been statistically significant for Manitoba and Saskatchewan,” the report states.

“Almost certainly, a major factor underlying Manitoba and Saskatchewan PISA outcomes is their share of Indigenous students.”

Terrance Pelletier said there is an inherent problem with the PISA results, in that “standardized testing assumes that everybody in the world is at the same level of education.”

Memorization and testing don’t work for everyone, said Pelletier, a PhD student at the University of Saskatchewan whose focus is First Nations educational leadership.

“It might work for the families in the city that are stable, that might have good income levels and have good homes. Poverty brings with it a lot of worries,” said Pelletier.

Larry Steeves, of the University of Regina faculty of education, takes issue with the C.D. Howe report’s assumption that it’s Indigenous students who are scoring so poorly.

The report considers census data from 2011 to infer that about 25 per cent of the Saskatchewan test-takers were Indigenous.

“You happen to have two statistics that line up, therefore that must be the reason — that’s just correlative, you can’t prove that A did B,” said Steeves, an associate professor in educational administration.

“They’re making a big leap of logic there that maybe, based on the information that they provide, can’t be substantiated.”

Steeves added that there may be a broader issue at play here: “I think it’s an issue that the province over successive administrations over the past three decades have not done a particularly good job of dealing with the issue of a sustained, thoughtful, research-based approach to improving student learning outcomes, and I would say that transcends ethnic backgrounds.”

He said other provinces, including Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta have done thoughtful work as to how to support all students.

“We’ve got the models there; we need to look at them and think about it and then work in a sustained, thoughtful, consistent way.”

Pelletier said resources differ depending on where you are: Urban school divisions are “doing a pretty good job” supporting Indigenous learners, while rural and northern communities have more challenges.

Schools in or near urban centres can find partnerships for things like school lunch programs, which isn’t doable in places like Fond Du Lac or Stony Rapids.

“Where are they going to make partnerships with community resources when there’s nothing in the communities as resources?” said Pelletier. “A lot of those kids will never leave that reserve … because they have to fly out.”

A 2016 report from the University of Regina Social Policy Research Unit found that 57 per cent of First Nations children lived in poverty, and 69 per cent of children living on reserve were poor, compared with 12 per cent of white children, according to 2010 data.

Rob Currie, deputy minister of education for the province, said PISA results are just “one of a number of measurable metrics” to determine student success.

He pointed to the ministry’s education sector strategic plan, and said funding for resources that support Indigenous student achievement was maintained even in the 2017-18 provincial budget, which saw cuts to education funding.

He said the ministry continually works to improve student engagement, and is looking at the curriculum to make sure it’s relevant and current.

The C.D. Howe Institute is a not-for-profit research institute that aims to foster economically sound public policy.

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